Dutch Enterprise and the VOC 1602-1799
The Dutch East India Company, or VOC (1602-1799) based its reputation on its success as a commercial venture. The shiploads of spices that sailed into Amsterdam harbour laid the foundation for the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic and a huge overseas trading network. But the VOC was more than just a company with a commercial interest in Asia. It was an enormous enterprise, involved in a wide range of economic activities on a global scale.
Dutch Enterprise and the VOC provides an insight into this diversity. Various aspects of the VOC's history are discussed, illustrated with a selection of objects from the Rijksmuseum collection, including a model ship, a lettertype, pieces of a fire extinguisher, a pin and a roll of tobacco. The Company as trader, transporter of goods and people, as shipbuilder and shipowner, as a military power, ruler and evangelizer - in Dutch Enterprise and the VOC you will discover the many apparitions of the world's first multinational.